


It Does Not Do To Dream

by nostalgic_breton_girl



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Blades, Gen, Sky Haven Temple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28411002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgic_breton_girl/pseuds/nostalgic_breton_girl
Summary: The Dragonborn refuses to kill Paarthurnax, and Delphine is left stranded.
Kudos: 17





	It Does Not Do To Dream

The dream has dissipated, the fantasy has gone, the Dragonborn is nothing special, the age has no Hero – and some retain that thought, cling to it: but Delphine, no more. The Dragonborn spoke to her in Riverwood, so long ago; followed her, listened to her; gave her what she had wanted, what she had awaited; now leaves her, ignores her, departs from the Temple as if it does not matter. It does not matter: the Dragonborn has business elsewhere, has business everywhere, is spread so thin that they are nothing beyond an imitation. And so it should be, and so she should have known: they had been a blank slate in Riverwood, she had hoped to write her epic, and so had everyone else in Skyrim. 

So had everyone else…

And she pretends it does not matter to her, either. It was a business partnership, and it dissolved; it was an alliance betrayed; the Dragonborn is at odds with her, cannot work with her, the illusion is gone. The Dragonborn is just a person. Not a Hero, not extraordinary, not the stuff of legends: a person, like everyone else. The dream and the fantasy are gone, and she should have known better than to entertain them. It does not do to dream, when the world is so unlike the stuff of dreams – 

When first she came to Sky Haven, it was with all the hope of an Empire restored; now it is smaller than she remembers, and when she stands before it, she sees only the cracks in the walls. It is painful: Riverwood had been so faded, so dulled, before the Dragonborn came; and then, for a few fleeting months, she had seen Skyrim in all its extraordinary colour. It does not do to dream…

_ Perhaps they will come around, _ says Esbern:  _ or perhaps we do not need them, or perhaps we shall find our chance, one day… _

_ I have had enough of waiting, _ returns Delphine, a silhouette upon the sunset.


End file.
